A ramble about Global Conflicts, my observations, and my experiences.
So. Global conflict. Let's put it in perspective. The first World War, or The Great War, the War to end all Wars, involved nearly all of Europe and a few players in Asia and over just six years, the global casualties were around 15-20 million, nearly half of them civilian. The second global war included essentially the same players as the last one, with a few adjustments, and the casualties were even worse in that one, and that's with the tools of the last war banned. Following that trend, any possible third Global War will likely include all of the same players, again, with a few minor adjustments and likely quite a few more players. It will more closely fit the descriptor of 'global' warfare, and, likely, the casualties will be even more telling, even without the use of Nuclear Warfare or Biological warfare. Even with most of the big players moving toward drone and unmanned devices, asymmetric warfare and others moving to, (I think) 4th generation warfare (soldiers fighting a battle in one moment able to mix into the local populace in the next moment). Instead of "just" twenty's or fourty's of millions of dead, we're likely still looking at hundreds of millions of dead, if not outright pushing right up to the billion mark. Not because of any real atrocity like attacks by one or more players, but by the sheer simple fact that as the population grows with each successive global war, so does the amount of potential bodies in a target rich environment. There is only so much that can be done to reduce the amount of secondaries, or 'collateral' in any one attack.
To put it simply, the ratio will remain the same of dead vs alive. The only thing that changes is the total amount involved.The thing that's most worrisome though is the fact that most of this knowledge is almost purely academic. Until the first Great War, nearly every nation had any number of veterans alive before and during that war to help prepare those closest to them with the realities of warfare. After the Great War, there were still wars in Europe, and by the time of the second Great War, there were still many veterans of the first World War, and likely other wars by this point, to relay to the younger generations the realities of warfare, even if the technologies used then vs later were so vastly different. In this case, we're looking at only a handful of players with any number of actual veterans of any major wars. To put it simply, every nation has veterans, of minor wars or conflicts, and there are no survivors of the previous major wars to pass down how truly horrifying warfare of that scale is, let alone why it is important to fight the fights that must be fought.That's the truly scary aspect to it all. We have no real guidance other than history books and documentaries from generations ago to go by, and no matter the amount of preparation for good or ill, no one player in the next global war will be prepared for it, and we're going to see the mistakes of inexperience the likes we haven't seen since the first Great War or before.It's going to get ugly, and the only solace I'll be able to look to in those trying times is the barely reported on movement of good Samaritans, of charitable movements and people packing up to move across borders to help each other. Even right now, with the media constantly reporting on all these deaths, picking and choosing which things to report on, all the good shit your average person is doing is being ignored.Like the company that has increased production of N97 face masks, and the various large companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and many more donating millions to that company.Or the Evangelicals that loaded up a semi truck with over 400,000 N97 masks and travelled across country to deliver those masks to healthcare workers and other first responders or hostpitols that desperately need them.I've seen almost no reportage of the various numberous charitable organizations moving mountains to get help to people that need it. I've seen absolutely no reportage on the various stores or people that leave signs up that tell the elderly and sickly that if they need help, to ask because the store/people have saved those supplies in the back specifically for them. No, I've only ever seen memes and facebook pages that take pictures of those and post them everywhere so people can see.I suppose my point here, besides just getting these thoughts out of my head, is that whenever shit gets real ugly, I almost always look for, and invariably find, the people being beautiful and showing that, outside of government and media ratings, humanity is absolutely worth having faith in. Just look for the person doing shit for other people and take heart - no matter how ugly things can get, there's someone out there helping bring a bit of life back into the world that's worth going on for. Those are the people worth fighting for.I suppose that's probably why I can not only tolerate most political or religious topics, but actually enjoy them, because I know that no matter how messed up either can get, there's always the other side of them that gets ignored and hidden in shadows because people naturally see the worst first, and are only helped along by bad actors pointing to the bad, or in some cases, the good actors that are trying to show both sides, but don't know how to present the good in an actually good light and just bungle it.This might also play into my usage of "I'm prejudiced, not racist." Because yes, I'm prejudiced. I've had shit experienced with other ethnic groups. Far more shit experience than good. But that's the thing, I've also had good experiences too. When I lived in Alabama, one of my best friends spoke maybe three whole words of English when I first met him and we didn't get along at first (mostly because his sister told me it was okay to do a thing that absolutely wasn't, namely taking a toy he had without asking). After that one issue though, we became quick friends and I remember that nearly everyday he would excitedly run up to me to share the new English word he learned. That was cool shit. The thing that really makes it difficult, is, in Alabama and most other Southern states, I was in the minority ethnic group, and the blatant racism, the being stopped by cops while my parents were lost and then escorted out of bad neighborhoods before the majority ethnic groups came out to kill us (the neighborhoods had reputations for doing that because they did do that) really colored my view of those ethnic groups for a time, mostly because of other experiences I'd rather not relive.So when I meet someone that's Hispanic or of African Ethnicity, yes, I'm on guard, but I don't immediately hate them because I've managed to look past all of the negativity that is almost constantly drilled in by both sides of the political spectrum. Because fuck people using the race card to get their way, or to make it seem like the other person is racist. Fuck that and fuck them. I make it a point to dismiss that and I look to the positives, and because of that, despite my experience born expectations, I'm always pleased when just me being civil gets a smile or civility returned.
